George Fox joins in day of service on MLK Day

World Telegram & Sun photo by Dick DeMarsico

For a second straight year, students and staff from George Fox University will join more than 1,200 representatives from eight other colleges and universities to serve the Portland metropolitan area with acts of volunteerism on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 17, 2011.

The event begins with a rally on the campus of Portland State University at 9 a.m. Immediately following, students will board busses and head to project sites across Portland. Among those partnering with the schools are Big Brother, Big Sister, De La Salle High School, Film Action Oregon, and the Friends of Trees organization.

As the conclusion of the day, students will engage in discussion about how the day impacted their lives and what the next steps will be for student collaboration.

“The aim is to make the holiday a day ‘on,’ not ‘off,’ where people from Portland-area college campuses unify together for the common goal of serving others and being the ‘beloved community’ that Dr. King envisioned,” said Shelley Yonemura, director of multicultural student programs at George Fox.

The Portland event ties into a national day of service. Initiated by Congress in 1994, King Day of Service builds on the civil rights leader’s legacy by transforming the federal holiday honoring him into a national day of community service grounded in his teachings of nonviolence and social justice.

Service is nothing new at George Fox. For 12 years the university has hosted Serve Day, when it closes school for one day in early September to send students and staff members out to surrounding communities to perform various volunteer projects.